The Judgment of Satan & Fallen Angels

Remember, actually, Hal covered 51 as part of the judgments up here. So, really, this is the next to the last chapter we're going to cover. So, the judgment of Satan and the fallen angels, and then Hal will finish up with the new heaven and the new earth.

So, if you look at chapter 50, I followed pretty closely Dr. Schaefer presented. I kind of pulled out the section on the judgment in the garden and kind of looked at that a little bit. So basically there are five areas we're going to look at in terms of, and if you think about it, it goes from virtually creation, you know, to the new heaven and the new earth, or just before that starts. So it covers that span, the judgment of Satan in the garden, judgment of Satan at the cross, and then Satan being cast out of heaven at the middle of the Tribulation period, and then being bound at the end of the Tribulation period, prior to the Millennial Kingdom, and then at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, the final judgment of Satan. So, actually, this picture that Hal put together, we're going to kind of track the judgment.

Actually, you can't see it back here somewhere in the Garden of Eden, but at the cross, and then approximately the middle of the Tribulation period, and at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom, and in the Millennial Kingdom. What's interesting is that a lot of the verses we'll see, the term a thousand years, or millennium, is mentioned quite a few times. So we'll see that. So let's look at Genesis chapter 3.

So in Genesis chapter 3, we encounter the first group of scriptures that talk about Satan, or as it's called here, the serpent, being judged or cursed. And this is just basically scripture on here, and I kind of highlighted a couple of different sections. It says, the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, and if you look in the context, basically because he has deceived Eve, this is a curse that fell to Satan.

He says, cursed are you more than all the cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you will go and dust you will eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel. So I'd like to just kind of go through and look at some of the words in each of these passages.

So let's look, first of all, that first of all, God, he curses, he curses Satan. And that word curses in the Hebrew talks about to render powerless. It's the idea of rendering powerless. And it's interesting, he says, you're cursed more than all the cattle and every beast of the field. So Satan incurred, there's a curse upon the earth, which I'm not going to really talk about, but his curse is more than any other creature, as he compares with the cattle and every beast of the field.

And then he goes on here and he talks about this, and I kind of pondered over this a little bit. He says, on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat. And those two phrases seem to, you know, at first you kind of just read past that, and I read past them for years and never thought much about them and thought, well. The first one, on your belly you will go, I didn't find as much information in my study, but it kind of occurred to me that that's talking about The fact that Satan has been judged, you know, Satan's desire was what?

What was his desire? As we look back, like in Isaiah, what was his desire? What was Satan's game plan back when he was with... Right, right. So, you know, if you look at Isaiah, he says, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars. He wanted to be like God, he wanted to be...

So in a way it seems like this is the... the opposite of that, and part of the curse is, on your belly you will go. So that was the first phrase. And then the second phrase, and dust you will eat. Let's look at a passage, and this one I guess kind of, you know, looking through it, God's Word is incredible. Comparing Scripture with Scripture, I kind of track that word dust, which is no more than dry earth. I mean, it's not, it wasn't very enlightening to look that word up in my concordance and but it's just basically dust or dry earth. But there was a verse that I came across in doing that that I thought was interesting. Let's look at Lamentations chapter 3. And can I get someone to read in Lamentations 3 verses 28 and 29? If you're having a hard time finding Lamentation, I know. You get extra time for it. Lamentation, chapter 3, verses 28 and 29. Thank you. Let him sit alone in the silence where the Lord has laid it on him. Let him bury his face in the dust. There may yet be hope.

Okay, so it turned out that if you track that word dust, there are several occurrences of that word, I'm not sure how many in the Old Testament, maybe 60 or 70 or 80, so some number of times, but this is one of the verses that, so it gave me an idea, let him put his mind, put his mouth in the dust. So basically, in a way, it seems to me it's alluding to the fact of silencing Satan. Part of the judgment is to silence Satan. Dust you will eat. Tracking back to this verse, let him put his mouth in the dust. Be silent, basically.

And we're going to see that Satan is a judged being. He was judged in the garden. He was judged at the cross. And that's wonderful news, because if you think about a lot of folks in Christianity, they have Satan as their main enemy. Let's go out and fight Satan. Let's go do battle with Satan. It's ludicrous in the first place, but I think relying upon what scripture says about Satan and what we're going to see in the garden and at the cross, he has been dealt with. God has dealt with Satan.

He's a real being, he's still alive, but he's been dealt with. So, on your belly you will go and dust you will eat. I think, from what I can tell, it seems to be characteristic of his position now. you know, powerful. God has silenced him. So I thought it was kind of interesting. Then you go on down to verse 15.

He says, I will put enmity between you and the woman. You go into this section here and you have... it refers to the woman, it refers to Satan. And at first, when you first read that, I don't know about you, when I was a young believer, I first read that, I kind of scratched my head and I said, I don't understand it. What does a woman have to do with Satan? I don't understand this.

But if you look at other places in Scripture, the woman is, if you think about the woman, a woman, the woman, Eve, is, you know, brought forth Christ, ultimately. Christ came through the woman. So we see this enmity between God's working through the woman to bring Christ and Satan and Satan's seed. And all the blue there, I've highlighted, and it's a little hard to track, but you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, he, Christ, will bruise you on the head, you, Satan, on the head, and you, Satan, will bruise him on the heel.

So I'll maybe just kind of walk through that. First of all, the word enmity is this idea of to be an enemy. So there's this Adversarial relationships that God's purpose through the woman in Christ is opposed to Satan's purpose. There's an adversarial relationship there. They're at enmity, they're at odds, they're enemies. Even the idea of hatred is that word.

And it talks about the fact that this word bruise is used a couple of times. He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel. Bruise is rendered in In different translations, wounded, crushed, strike. So there's two occurrences here of bruise. And one is, He, the Lord Jesus, will bruise you on the head.

So, what do you think that's referring to? I have some observation. What do you think that's talking about? He, Christ. If you think I'm wrong, putting Christ in there. It's capitalized in my version, but maybe they made a mistake there. It says, He, I say Christ, shall bruise you, Satan, on the head. What's that referring to? You think of... Okay, I would agree with you. So what's the What's the second one? And you, Satan, shall bruise him on the heel. What's that talking about? OK, well.

I think that I think they both refer to the cross. I mean, that's that's why I think they're both referred to the cross. Well, I thought it was significant that, you know, and this is just kind of thinking about a wound or a crushing or striking the head. Let's take Christ, let's take the bottom one first. Christ died on the cross, right? I mean, from the world's perspective, that was it, right? But God's plan, He raised Him from the dead. It wasn't permanent. But the judgment on Satan is permanent.

So it seems like the head and the heel are significant. I looked the words up and there was nothing significant in the Hebrew in those words. One is head and one is heel. So there wasn't anything I could gain from that. But thinking about striking or crushing a blow to the head is much more damaging than a blow to the heel, if you will.

And without the rest of Scripture, you wouldn't have a chance. If somebody were to say, just take that and the rest of Scripture, you wouldn't have a clue. So we're relying a lot on Scripture to take the truths of the New Testament and look backwards and say, well, what is being talked about here? Let's just look at one verse in the New Testament that might Talking about this, the crushing to the head or the wounding to the head, let's look at Romans.

This is an area in which I'm sure you can do a lot better job. I realized that once I got into it. This is one of these things that you can keep going. So in Romans chapter 16, Kind of in the closing part of Romans, it talks about, in verse 19 it says, For the report of your obedience has reached us all, therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. And then verse 20 is the one I was looking at.

And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. So, you know, these are looking forward. He shall, it's looking to a time in the future. He shall bruise you on the head and he shall bruise him on the heel, looking forward to the cross and what God would accomplish. So God's purpose was to crush, a crushing blow to Satan. And Satan, it appears from this, you know, it seemed to be a crushing blow But it's only to his heel. It turned out not to be because of God's plan and purpose to raise him from the dead. Anyway.

So hopefully that was helpful. I'm sure you look at these verses many times too. Any other observations or comments you'd like to... I certainly probably haven't exhausted it. So this is the judgment of Satan. Kind of a recap. He was cursed. He was demoted, if you will. On your belly you will go, you will eat of the dust. And then this adversarial relationship was kind of spotlighted at that, between God and Satan.

And we'll look at that in a second. I don't know if I can. Yeah, I understand. I'm sure I can. OK. OK, that's good. Right. Right. OK. Good. Thanks. OK. Great. Thank you. OK. Now let's look at what happened at the cross. Okay, so let's turn to John 16, even though I have it up here just maybe.

Okay, so this passage, you know, this is a tremendous passage about the Holy Spirit and His ministry, and His ministry to the unbeliever, and Christ is talking about when the Holy Spirit comes, and if you read, starting in verse 7, it says in John 16, So, there are three areas. The Holy Spirit is working in the lives of unbelievers. And that word, convict, I think could actually be rendered convinced. His ministry is convinced in three areas. And one of the areas is interesting. He talks about sin, and it's the sin of not believing in him. That's what he says. That's what the issue is with the unbeliever. Concerning sin because they do not believe in me. And righteousness. And the third one is judgment.

So part of his ministry is concerning the judgment of the ruler of this world, has been judged. And that term, ruler of this world, John uses that like three times in the Gospel of John. He uses it in John 12 and John 14 as well. That's a term he uses, that's one of Satan's names, And then we're going to see later on, rulers and authorities kind of refer, that's another term that refers to Satan and the fallen angels. And he says, concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

And the idea here is that he has been judged and is now under judgment. And that kind of comes about from the fact that the word is, that word judged is, decided it's a perfect, in the perfect tense, completed action, completed an action, ongoing results into the future. So he judged, actually I was thinking about this, you could think about this back to the garden. He has been judged and he's under judgment now. I had one thought, how far back, you could go back to the garden, where the rule of this world has been judged. And he's now under judgment.

And the word judgment is the idea of a trial, the idea to undergo the process of a trial. And can you think of... I'm not too good at phrasing questions here. But besides Satan being judged, this verse says that in concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. Is there another significant judgment you can think about? that exists right now? Satan is under judgment and continues under judgment. Is there another judgment that is significant in this world right now? Okay, I'm thinking, yeah, okay, that's good. How about a little more personal one? Not so much for, I'm gonna give it away here if I don't get careful. I can't ask questions. Okay, okay, that's good. Okay. How about, think about this.

Can somebody quote to me John 3.18? You know 3.16, right? This is one of Hal's favorite verses. I like his story about this verse. I just like this story.

Anyway, John 3.18. Okay, we'll just... So, if you read, would someone like to read 318 if you already turned there? Right.

So, this is a tremendous verse if you think about it, because I know it's a, I was somewhat like Hal when you think about, well, I'm sort of neutral. I can just, you know, and talk to people, that's exactly what they say. Hey, I don't have a problem. I can choose this or I can choose that. Not a problem. It's under my control.

I have the ability to choose and not choose. And you can't tell me that... Scripture says a very different thing. The unbeliever is not neutral. I think that's significant. The rule of this world has been judged. The unbeliever is judged. Once we come to know Christ, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We're not judged because Christ has taken our judgment.

I thought that was just neat. Maybe a little bit of an aside. Okay, so let's come down to Colossians chapter 2. It says when he, if you look at the context, Speaking of Christ, when he, Christ, had disarmed rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them having triumphed over them through him, through Christ. So basically having triumphed, the idea of having triumphed is the idea of – it's like a triumphal procession.

I was struggling with that and I didn't come to – I'll throw this out for – what do you think this public – made a public display of them? What do you think that's referred to? I didn't come to any – What was the public display? He disarmed rulers and authorities and made a public display of them. The triumph part I can see. The cross is the triumph of God's dealing with man.

The public display I kind of struggle with. I couldn't find an exact... What's he referring to there? That can be a homework assignment if you... And that word disarm, I'm not sure it's the whole idea, but the word disarm is to strip off, to strip away from. So obviously it's speaking of not having the power or the ability. Well, why don't we just think about that? I didn't have an answer.

The last verse, I think, is just a really important verse for just a variety of reasons. We can just read it from here. It says, Therefore, since children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same. So we're speaking of Christ here. He partook of flesh and blood, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, That is the devil. So this is a new American standard, rendered powerless. What does the King James have for that?

Okay, yeah, I was wondering about that too. I didn't look that one up. How about NIV? Okay, that's interesting. Well, actually they're consistent because this is a real important word. This passage really helps tremendously with the passage in Romans. Let's look at that passage for a second before I... Let's look at Romans chapter 6. If you go down to... Romans chapter 6 and verse 6. It says, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

I think King James, is it destroyed there? Yeah, so the King James renders that word rendered powerless, destroyed. Well, the root word is, you know, I think it's just really critical that you look at the root word. The root word is, render powerless is not bad. And I'm surprised that the New York Center didn't do it, didn't do render powerless back in Roman 6-6. Because the word is, and I'll draw on some of Hal's examples here, to take offline, like you have in a car, if you go into idle and you rev the engine, your car's not moving any place, right Ryan? You're in the engine, like you do in the driveway, with a muffler shot. It sounds really awesome, but it's not going anywhere.

So if it's an idol, so that word basically is like to put an idol. So it says through, so if you look at this situation, take that explanation of that word, that through death, through Christ's death, he might put an idol Him who has the power of death, that is the devil. So the devil wasn't destroyed, the devil is still around.

He's out, you're going to see, he's accusing the brother day and night. He's out there doing his business. But in terms of the believer, he's been put in idle. You know, if you look at the context like in Job, he has to ask God's permission to do anything with his creation. He's rendered powerless, or put in idle. So I think that's just really...

And it helps in terms of comparing Scripture with Scripture. If you make them both destroyed, then you've got the devil destroyed, and you've got the sin nature destroyed. So you've got some problems there, because who's doing what's going on here? I should be having a great time, because I don't have the devil, he's been destroyed, and I don't have the sin nature. if you render them both destroyed. Something to search out on your own. See if I'm right. To me, that's helped me a lot. Just looking at that particular word and looking at that word really is important.

So the devil's been put in isle, taken offline. So that's wonderful news. Wonderful news for the believer. And actually, the Lord kind of referred to that, and we have to turn to it, and Luke, he talked about His disciples went out and they said, you know, that the demons, they know your name. They're subject. They realize that you have won the victory, basically. That you are God and who you are. They recognize that.

So, Satan has been judged at the cross. And he's still under judgment. He's been put in idol. So that's wonderful news in terms of what Satan can do. Well, I'll say this. We know that he's... One of Satan's game plans is deception, right? He's a deceiver. We're going to see that quite a bit later on. He's a deceiver.

So we can... The believer can... It talks about being tempted. We can be tempted by Satan's work in the world. We can be tempted by that and buy into that. But that doesn't change our position. That doesn't change this position that in relation, this is, you know, thinking about our position and our condition again, that in terms of our position he's rendered powerless. But if we take the bait, if we buy into what he's doing, you know, then in that sense he, just like we can energize our sin nature, The same sin nature can respond to his deception.

The wiles of the devil. All right, so let's go on. Okay, so now, if you turn to Revelation chapter 12, and something that struck me here, I don't know whether maybe it struck you before too, that in the garden we saw that there was this adversarial relationship set up between God and Satan. It's interesting, you know, God God is the creator. He created Satan. He created everything.

So he doesn't... He doesn't... What's the right word? There are pictures where Satan comes to God, like one-on-one in Job. But it's interesting, in this casting out of heaven, he sends Michael, the archangel. I mean, God speaks it, and he's, you know... We don't have the scripture, but I mean, just thinking about it, just looking at casting out of heaven, and then we get to going to the abyss, Archangel and angels go and they interact with Satan. Just an observation. It's interesting that God determines what he's going to do and accomplishes it. And he doesn't... Michael and others, they carry out his bidding. So I thought that was interesting. So, it says here that there was... starting in verse 12 and verse 7. So it's Revelation 12, starting in verse 7. And there was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels wage war.

And it says in verse 8, and they were not strong enough, and there was no place found for them in heaven. So let's just stop there. So they weren't strong enough, and basically the idea there is they did not have the power to win. That's how Weiss renders it. They didn't have the that Satan and his angels did not have the power to win. They're not strong enough. And there was no longer any place found for them in heaven. No place left. I didn't really find too much on that. So basically that they weren't strong enough and there was no place found for them.

And then it starts this series starting in the third bullet or actually it's verse 9. The great dragon was thrown down the serpent of old, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. This word, thrown down, appears actually four times in this little section that appears later on. This is a word that Verne talked about a little bit, I think, in the, remember he had his ballo, and it's the idea of, you know, to cast, to throw, And it actually has the idea, apparently, of quickness or it's a quick reaction or a quick casting out. And we'll see that in just a second, I think, in the verse that I'll show you. Yeah, it's good. I like this. Okay.

So, the dragon was thrown down. He was thrown down or cast down. He was thrown down to the earth. Actually, somehow he was cast into the earth. The King James has it cast into the earth. I kind of found that in the King James you use the word cast, and in the New American Standard you use the word to throw. But the same root word is this word ballo. But one uses the word to cast out, and one uses to throw down.

So there's a couple of verses that, and this kind of goes back to tying some other things together. Let's look back in John, John chapter 12. And Jesus is talking here in John chapter 12 and verse 30. Jesus answered and said, This voice has not come for my sake, but for yours. Now judgment is upon this world. Now the ruler of this world shall be cast out.

So this seems to be that he was looking forward to this throwing down. That's the same word, the cast out. And I'm not sure why they have thrown down in some cases and cast out. Actually, this one is a little bit different form, though. This is ekbalo. If I knew my Greek better, ekbalo rather than balo here. But it's the same root word, throw out.

So this is looking forward to this time period. It seems when Christ was talking here. And then there's another one in Luke, Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. Actually, I referred to this a little bit before. It says, starting in verse 17, Luke chapter 10, starting in verse 17, And the seven returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

And he said to them, I was watching Satan fall, from heaven like lightning. I think once again, taken by itself, I'd make you have a, you know, it seems like this kind of correlates with this casting out of heaven. It seems to be. I mean, it seems to be. Actually, what's interesting is we get down here. Heaven's rejoicing. There's a woe to the earth, but heaven's rejoicing. It's really interesting. It's a pretty incredible statement. Let's just keep going. I left some parts out of that verse.

For the accuser of the brethren has been thrown down, and this is interesting, who accused them before God day and night. So that's one of Satan's game plans, accusing the brethren day and night. So he has access to God, he's accusing us. And it talks about how they overcame because of the blood of the Lamb, because of the word of their testimony.

Then you go down to the last verse. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. So heaven is rejoicing, this is incredible. Satan's being cast down, thrown down to the earth. And it's very, like the Lord said, it's like lightning. It's very quick, like the fastball. It's probably faster than a fastball. Heaven's rejoicing. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them.

But the earth, and if you look at the context here, this is the middle of the tribulation period. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he only has a short time. So he's cast down to the earth and that's when, you know, as someone said, literally all hell breaks loose. That's when things just, unbelievable. Satan just goes out, he knows his time is short. In fact, actually in verse 13 there in Revelation, it kind of talks about that a little bit, that he's, in 12.13, yeah it says, And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. So Satan's aware that his time is short.

And actually, this idea here, he's called... Let's see, I lost my place here. So there's really two things here. If you look, two things that are pointed out about Satan. He's the accuser of the brethren is one, right? And he's the one who deceives the whole world. So two aspects of what Satan's about are mentioned. Who deceives the whole world, I guess the cosmos, the whole world, everything. And accuser of the brethren. So we're going to see that Satan is literally, one of his names is literally the deceiving one. That is one of his names in scripture, the deceiving one. That's his characteristic. And I was kind of thinking about that's what he, that's what he was about with Eve, right? I mean, he said he deceived her in believing that she could be like God. I mean, that was deception.

And if you think about, think about all the, a lot of the issues in our world today, and Satan is the prince in power there. They're about deception. Think about all the, think about Wall Street. Deception. Presidencies. Deception. I mean, there's all different levels. Think about Iraq. Here you are. The troops are coming into Baghdad and you're on the TV saying we're going to overcome this and they're coming down almost walking in the door. I mean, it's deception. Something that's not true. Deception is the characteristic of Satan. And that's going to come to an end. Okay. So now Satan cast into the abyss.

He says, I saw an angel coming down from heaven. Once again, the angel is doing God's bidding, coming down from heaven, holding the keys to the abyss, and a great chain in his hand. Actually, some renderings have the abyss as the bottomless pit. I didn't really get a chance to search out that word, King James renders at Bottomless Pit.

And he laid hold of the dragon and the serpent of old, who is the devil, and Satan and bound him for a thousand years. So here's one of the occurrences of the thousand years. And he threw him into the abyss. And the idea of throwing him into the abyss is...

I notice that a lot of these thrown down, it's the idea of They're all a permit. You know, it's something that's happened. A once for all kind of thing. He's he's thrown down permanently or or. Three minutes of this thrown down, it's another form that we're Balo. And then two things happen, right?

He threw it in, but he shut he shut it and sealed it over. And depending upon your translations, shut it actually has the idea of locking it up. And the idea of seal is putting a seal over it. So there's two actions, shutting it and sealing it. The first one actually locks it, but the second one is sort of like with the tomb, I think, where they seal it.

And it says here, and one of the reasons why, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer. So one of the reasons why he's put into this abyss for this thousand years is so he would not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed. And then he's going to be released for a short time period. So I was kind of thinking about why is it so important that he wouldn't deceive the nations any longer? We kind of talked about that a little bit. Isn't it about the millennial kingdom? Because if he's not, let's see if God didn't do that.

What's the modus operandi right now? What's one of Satan's things that he's doing, even though he's put in idle? Let's look at an important point, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. So what's Satan about right now, in terms of the unbeliever? It's important that for the millennial kingdom he'd be put, locked up, chained up, sealed. So 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and let me just start at 3.

And it says, Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In whose case the God of this world, you know who that is, right? That's Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they may not see the light of the gospel, of the glory of God, who is the image of God. So it's significant that Satan's going to be put into the abyss, locked up, so he can't deceive.

He can't be in 2 Corinthians 4.4. He won't be blinding the minds of the unbelieving.

So that's something that's going on. This is just me personally thinking of my experiences. You talk to people, And you realize that by no amount of logic, no amount of your smart say, like how you're talking to this Greek guy yesterday telling us about, you can't do it. The Holy Spirit working in their lives. You can't, by a surge of logic, you can't convince them.

They can't see it. God has to be acting. God has to do it. You can't faithfully give them God's Word, and that's what we're to do. But you can't, you know, by your smart say, make them believe, right? You want them to believe, like if you have relatives, you definitely want them to believe. But they're blind, they can't see it.

But what's incredible, and I think it's going to the last chart here, what's incredible is that in years, and we talked about last week the wonderful millennial kingdom with peace and righteousness, Christ in the throne, that we come to what happens after, and it's just some startling things, kind of a I really was, how bad, how awful the sinful nature is.

So it says, when the thousand years are completed, released from prison, and will come out to deceive, what's he going to do again? Do his old games again. See the nations again. So you think, the millennial kingdom, a time of throne, Satan's not there to see the nations, now he's back to see the nations. And he goes out to God, to Magog, somebody with mountains, I don't know, I should know, but I don't know. So Satan goes out, he deceives the nations, he gets them together for a war.

And how many are there? Because it was all thousand years of righteousness with only the sin nature as our only enemy? Just a few? No, it says the number of them were like the sands of the sea. How can that be? A thousand years of the best it can be and Satan can pull together in that time period, enough for him, people as the sands of the sea.

And they came up to the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the blood takes them. And then God described this very quickly, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. So I'm, pointed out to me, how great, and we see how, how great a salvation we have, what God, in the best situation there could ever be in this earth, there are ones like the sands of the sea.

I said, well, that maybe in that time period people have falsely professed to believe in Him that really did not. We're not told about that, but just the fact that Satan can gather together, you know, like the sands of the sea is pretty incredible. And then finally, the devil who deceived them, once again, deceiver is very, the devil who deceived them, once again, Balo, into the lake of fire and brimstone. False prophets are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

It's pretty incredible. And, you know, think about the verse that talks about that, you know, in Matthew 25, the lake of fire was prepared. It wasn't prepared for man, it was prepared for the devil and his angels. That place was prepared for him. God knew that in advance.

Nia, last thoughts or comments? Next week, a new heaven and a new earth. New in quality. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for your word, Father. Thank you, Lord. Lord, you show us over and over again, Lord, how desperately we need you. We're full of you. We're like Satan. many ways. We have so much to offer and we have nothing to offer, Lord, and you have it all, Lord.

We thank you that through your word we can see that and through your word we can come to know you and trust in you and rely upon you, Lord. We thank you for that, Lord. We thank you that you will finally put everything right and everything will be done in accordance with your purpose. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.